MERRY CHRISTMAS

From Kohawk TENNIS

We hope your Christmas is especially wonderful, and that your time with friends and family is fantastic, fun and fulfilling!

Winter has arrived!(but not in Vernon, TX)

Wintertime descended upon Cedar Rapids yesterday......

 ...and Coe got a good dusting of snow!

But Coach Brad fled the State on Monday.....

 Vernon TX

Today

Sunny

High: 61 °F

....but left his Truck here

  ....one would have thought that a "Good" Texan would take better care of his Truck!!!

Empty Monday

Back in CR, back to RC....and back to Work

Where did all the Players go?
     (Oh, yeah. Home for the next month)

Hope they ALL took their racquets and running shoes home.
     (But didn't I see the racquets and shoes of the Men's Captain upstairs in the Tennis Lounge?)

Where was I?
     Annual Winter Walkabout-Gatlinburg TN

Hiked in rain, in a dusting of snow, up and down hills, and all around town. About 45 miles.

 

 

Semester's End

December is often a time to look back and celebrate many of our greatest accomplishments from the year. I know this to be true because I throw up a little in my mouth each time I see a “year end, top ten, best” list (you know what I’m talking about). December is also a time to celebrate the end of a long semester of school work. For those who are fall graduates it’s an especially exciting time where there is no school next semester and also no job.

Even Spiderman?

In all this celebrating we have left out one key person: Me. Last week I passed a milestone of my own sorts with the completion of my master’s thesis. In celebration I’m going to regale you with the tale of how my thesis came about and in the process make you never want to attend graduate school.

In my graduate program there are two tracks students can take for graduation. They can either do a thesis or an internship. I want to be clear about this, although there are two choices, EVERY STUDENT DOES AN INTERNSHIP. I knew this just as well as all my classmates who DID AN INTERNSHIP. I, however, decided to go against the wisdom of the masses and elected for the thesis route. My professors tricked me into doing a thesis by slyly asking if I wanted to do a thesis

They tricksyed us!

Looking back, this conversation was kind of like those bad horror movies where the dumb protagonists go inside the scary house even though we all know it’s a terrible idea. When asked if I wanted to do a thesis I should have said, “NO!” But I didn’t. I willingly went into the scary house to be decapitated.

That summer I did preliminary research which involved reading journal article after journal article for a few hours every day. Most people would probably think just a few hours a day doesn’t sound too bad but you try deciphering what “long axis rotation: the missing link in proximal-to-distal segmental sequencing” means. It’s not fun. After doing this all summer I planned on conducting my experiments in mid-October.

October came and went and I had done no experiments. I cannot stress how slow things move in academia. It’s slow, slow, very very slow. In order to conduct my experiments, I needed to get subjects which I couldn’t do without university approval which I couldn’t do without finalizing my design which I couldn’t do without my thesis committee’s approval and on and on and on. With the help of my professors I did come up with a title: The Effect of a Three Set Tennis Match on Knee Kinematics and Leg Muscle Activation During the Tennis Serve.

The excitement is palpable

I did eventually get my experiments set up. Unfortunately, they were during the last two weeks of the school year in December which led to no small levels of stress on me during this time. If I had been a coffee drinker at this time I would have died from a caffeine overdose. Now you might think that conducting the experiments would be the toughest part of a thesis; after that, everything is pretty much done. I thought the same thing but I was so, so wrong. Once the experiments are done everything else doesn’t just magically fall into place.

I filmed people playing tennis and then later digitized certain parts of the serve in order to analyze what was actually happening during the serve. Digitizing is BORING! And I had 300 videos to digitize. It took two weeks of me sitting at a computer with blood pouring from my eyes to finish digitizing all these videos. After I had completed this, I really felt I had turned a corner and was close to completion. I was wrong again. Next came more analysis, and more analysis, and just to change things up I did some more analysis. By this time I was done with this the spring semester was over.

Then came the writing. Now I had written my introduction the previous fall so by the time I came back around to writing the rest of the paper I had forgotten what I said in my introduction! On most days the writing went fairly well but there were some weeks that made me long for a truck to run me over. It’s not a great feeling when after 3 hours of revising and writing you have added a grand total of two lines to your thesis, or even worse, have negatively added to the length of your paper.

Then came formatting the paper which was the most frustrating part of the whole experience. I’m no computer genius, but I feel I have a decent grasp of how computers work and I’ve been using word processors since I was a little kid. Apparently Microsoft Word was programmed by the devil in an attempt to make everyone hate their lives. I spent a whole day trying to get the page numbers to work correctly. A whole day! The table of contents? I still don’t know how I ever got that to work. Most likely I promised fealty to someone and naming rights to my first born.

Word Processor Developer

After everything was written and my desire to jump in front of a truck had been abated, it was time for my thesis defense. This is when a student presents their thesis to their committee and defends what they have done. If the committee accepts the thesis the student gets to graduate, but if they don’t accept the thesis, then the student spends the next 12 months crying themselves to sleep at night. My defense lasted two and a half hours! While this is a long time it was actually fun and exciting. When you get five nerds in a room to talk about science, we can go for a long time. “So that’s really exciting. The graph shows Median Power Frequency of the biceps femoris was actually increasing along the vertical axis…

I did have to make a few corrections after my thesis defense. No biggie. These would only take me another four months to complete. From the time I started work on my thesis to its completion and final acceptance last week was a total of 18 months. And what has this experience taught me (other than my affinity for wanting to jump in front of moving vehicles)? Not much that I can see. Only an in depth knowledge of serving biomechanics, proper experimental design, proper documentation of experiments, motion capture technology, muscle function with regards to fatigue, ball flight mechanics, participant recruitment, statistical testing, Microsoft Word, academic processes, perseverance, determination, and the will to succeed. 

Yeah, it probably wasn't worth it.

Runner's World

During the summer of 2009 I re-started my reading career which had been dormant since Middle School, a time I fondly reminisce about by sticking a knife in a light socket (they were both about as much fun).

Since I started reading again, I have loaned several books to friends from the Brad Fenter Library. Outliers; A Walk in the Wood; Plain, Honest, Men; all of these books have been handed out along with several others. The Social Animal has my record for most times checked out and is currently in a different time zone. Last week I received a checkout request from Kris, but the choice of book was left up to me. Since Kris and I share a similar passion for exercise and fitness, it was a no-brainer to choose Born to Run. This book is one of my favorites as I have previouslydiscussed, and I felt she would enjoy it as much as I would. What I did not know was that within two days of starting the book Kris would begin barefoot running, get into an argument with the salesman from Dick’s over minimalist shoes, and order her own pair of Vibram Five-Fingers.

I've created a Monster

Since running has been on everyone’s mind lately I would like to present my top runs from this past year. This list is not in any order, it’s simply a chronicling of the places where a few of my favorite runs from this past year have taken place.

Vedauwoo, Wyoming

Elevation: 8,000 ft

Shoes Worn: Brooks Cascadia Trail Runners

Vedauwoo (pronounced Veda-voo) is a rocky outcropping of Sherman Granite east of Laramie, Wyoming. Besides camping, biking, and hiking, Vedauwoo has some of the best crack climbing routes in the country. I must confess I knew as much about this place as you probably did before reading this post: nothing.

A friend suggested Vedauwoo as a good place to stop for a run, otherwise I would have never heard of this place. There was virtually no one there which I immensely enjoyed. I attributed the lack of people  at Vedauwoo to the fact that I was there on a Tuesday afternoon and most people have to work…or it could have been the simple fact that I was in people-starved Wyoming and my presence there brought up the state population a whole percentage point

You may have noticed the posted elevation of 8,000 feet. If you think this is a little high for doing any running, let me just say you are correct. There was a marked difference in my ability to breath compared to my usual running experiences. I assumed it was because of the lack of oxygen. Looking back it could have been the 6 hours and 1,000 miles of traveling I had done that day. While the elevation did have a small effect on my run; I only encountered one real problem during my run. When I first started on the trail I was enjoying the scenery and soaking in my new surroundings, “Look at those rock formations. Man, this place is beautiful and that view is awesome! I wonder…” BOOM!

I face planted into the trail! I decided that I really wanted to be one with nature and the only way to facilitate that was by inserting my face in it. My running partner can attest to this incident and the fact that I was soaking in too much of my surroundings to stay upright.

I love nature!

You may be wondering why this makes my top list since I was tired, couldn’t breath, and got personally acquainted with the trail. Short answer: the place had some unique and beautiful vistas, and anytime you got tired of trail running, you could explore the granite rocks (apparently running without any safety measures high above the ground is great fun).

Sac & Fox Trail, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Elevation: 810 ft

Shoes Worn: New Balance Minimus 20

The Sac and Fox trail is a run I love to do right here in Cedar Rapids. Coach Rodgers directed me here so I could get away from asphalt trails, and I have been visiting the place ever since. The trail is crushed limestone which is much easier on the knees than concrete or asphalt – I’m not as young as I once was. Also, the trail has some nice views of the Cedar River which the trail follows for a few miles. I know looking at rivers may be mundane to people from Cedar Rapids who have seen a river every day of their lives, but I absolutely love them. In Texas, a river is that stretch of sand that meanders through the landscape where water once flowed at some point in history (probably the same time Coach Rodgers was young).

My favorite part about running at the Sac & Fox trail can be summed up from this picture.

Muddy parking lots?

The trail isn’t exactly crowded, especially during week days. You may notice a pattern emerging here; all my favorite runs are at places that are devoid of other human beings. I have run the Sac & Fox trail enough that now when I do see other people there I almost get angry. “What are they doing here? Don’t they know this is my trail?”

When I started running this trail is also when I started wearing my New Balance Minimus shoes. It took a few runs for my body to acclimate to the new footwear (2 months of intense calf pain), but now I can run as much as I want without any knee problems. This has invariably led to more smugness on my part as I see other people huffing along, heel striking, in their big running shoes.

Wheeler Canyon, Utah

Trailhead Elevation: 4,840 ft

Shoes Worn: Brooks Cascadia Trail Runners

It was probably a small miracle that I ever found my way to this trail. Before this run I was in Ogden, Utah which sits just west of Wheeler Canyon. My friend and I wanted to go for a run but had no idea where anything was since this was our first time there. Me being the way I am, I refused to ask anyone about local trails because that would require social interaction with others and that was not happening. “This is my vacation! You mean I still have to talk to people?” Luckily my friend did not share in my scorn for other living, breathing human beings and engaged in the job of finding local running trails (She was so excited to have a friend like me). The winning bid came from a cashier at an outdoor clothing store who said, “take the highway east up the mountain, I think about 15 miles. Before you get to the reservoir there’ll be a turn off. Don't worry it's marked. No wait, maybe it's not...I’m not sure if it’s marked. Anyway, you’ll walk a short distance through the trees and you’ll find the trailhead. If you get to the reservoir you’ve gone too far.”

Oh thanks, Google Maps couldn’t have given better directions. After a few failed attempts, we finally found the trailhead and started our run. This being a mountainous region, the whole first half of the run was uphill. I know that sounds awful (it was a little bit) but the scenery was amazing. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the temperature was in the high 70s as we followed the snaking trail up the canyon through dense tree cover.  Eventually, we turned back when the trial began a series of switchbacks as it climbed higher up the mountain – okay, you win this one nature. The nice thing about the second half of the run was that it was all downhill. It only takes a Disney level knowledge of gravity to figure out going down was much easier than going up. We even managed to find a small clearing and did the day’s ab workout right there next to the trail.

Rocks: nature's yoga mat

Working out, running, great weather; these all contributed to this trail making the list, but the best part about this run was the solitude it offered – I know, you’re shocked. During our entire time on the trial I did not see one other human being besides the friend with me. Obviously, this would be bad if, say, I longed for nature’s embrace again but this time took a dive face first into the rocks protruding from the canyon stream. But to you I say, “Stop being such a Debbie Downer, I was fine. I’ll bet those views from your couch were breathtaking.” Plus, my mother worried plenty enough for everyone, trust me. 

Fill in the Blanks....

Nonsense & drivel from the HC......

SLOW times around here. Last week of classes, finals next week. Still tennis players on a daily basis tho!

Coach Kris on Vacation to Peachtree City, GA

I'm headed out Saturday to Indiana. Then, depending on weather, to Great Smoky Mountain National Park for a much needed hiking fix.

Coach Brad to Texas for Winter Break on 12/17. Look out Lone Star State!

An Old Friend from Tennis Days Gone By checked in this week via email. Good to hear from Glen. Mr Barnes had one of the all time great quotes: "if the ball didn't go in the court, you didn't hit it hard enough!" Glen was of course known all across Southern Indiana and Kentucky for his on court consistency and touch. NOT!

Have also heard from another Old Friend from Tennis Days Gone By.....BP checked in frequently in November and he and I may have an exciting announcement coming up in January. Stay tuned!

Coach Kris and I continue to work on the upcoming 2013 Central Region NCAA D3 Tennis Rankings. Men's Teams are now set in an order 1-100 based on their 2012 results. Same for Women's teams #1-50.
Kenyon and Chicago are obvious #1's.....can you guess the #100 team?